Receiving an about $980,000 loan from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is all that stands between Athens and new piping along several roads in the city.
City Council members adopted a contract for the 2012 Water Improvements Project at Monday’s council meeting, which would add new piping along three sections of road in the city.
If Athens officials receive the low-interest loan from the Ohio EPA, the project to replace 1950s-era pipes in the city can break ground.
“We support this project and the mayor’s office to move forward with this and accept bids,” said Councilman Kent Butler, D-1st Ward.
The city is expected to receive the loan on June 28.
Council also adopted an ordinance to partner with the Central Collection
Agency, a tax collection entity based in Cleveland, to collect taxes from delinquent taxpayers the city wouldn’t be able to catch on their own.
This agency accesses tax data from the Internal Revenue Service because Cleveland, unlike Athens, meets the population requirements to do so. City officials hope the agency will find Athens citizens filing federally but not locally.
“They would charge no more than five percent of what they find,” said Mayor Paul Wiehl. “This would help us find revenue we wouldn’t be able to find on our own.”
There will be an amnesty period for citizens to come forward without penalty if they do owe back taxes, which will be from June 1 to June 30.
Council also passed a resolution that would allow the city to enter in agreement with a third-party contractor to make Southside Park more accessible to handicapped children.
“There’s (nobody) local who can do this that I’m aware of, but there are companies around the state,” said Councilman Steve Patterson, D-At Large.
Still, a representative of the Rotary Club of Athens has said that Council should move swiftly to get the project done, and to give the contract to a third-party bidder.
“This (project) is critical for wheelchair access,” Richard Vedder said in a previous interview. Vedder is a fellow of the Rotary Club of Athens and a distinguished professor of economics at Ohio University. “(Athens) has been somewhat deficient in providing services to our handicapped youth.”
But putting the base in now would be impractical because the base would need to be installed in late August, said Wiehl.
“It probably isn’t going to get done as quickly as some people would like,” said Wiehl. “It will take time like anything else.”
jj360410@ohiou.edu
